Vera's Food Waste Fight Thread

It has been FIVE days since I last threw out food.

I type up this update while waiting for the power to my house to come back on. I am assuming it will come back on. I am assuming that it is off because the next block over is having some street lights replaced, but actually I’m not 100% sure because when I went down there to see why road closed signs were going up the person I talked to said nothing about the power possibly going off. Anyway. Fingers crossed it’ll be back up soon.

Power off because of new street lights is a lot better than power going off due to a fire, and I was wondering when I first saw the signs about the road closure if it was because of a new fire. There has been a lot of fire activity in the region in the last couple of days, there have been buildings lost to a fire in the next valley over and a fire up the valley which is too close to a city, and it has been extremely smoky. The day before yesterday I slept in by an hour and a half because the sky was so dark I thought it was still night time when I first woke up.

This morning after getting out of the shower I dug through my hat boxes and found a light scarf to tie over my head before going out. Last night when I was going to bed I kept smelling smoke and finally came to the conclusion it was clinging to my hair. (I was too tired to have a shower last night.)

Harvested some green beans from the garden this morning.

I did go grocery shopping yesterday – I think I’m going to have to come up with a new budget for my groceries because it now seems impossible to stick with the old one. I was chatting with two people in the states a few days ago and they were saying it feels like prices have gone up 20% in the last couple of months down there so at least I can say well it’s not just me.
One of the things I got from the farm stand was a nice watermelon. It’s not huge, in fact I bought the smallest one I could see, but it will probably be a bit of a struggle to finish it all as I know my housemate is not a fan. I’m thinking I might offer half of it to my neighbour. And I think you can freeze watermelon cubes?

However, my freezers are starting to fill up again – this time with potatoes. I’ve been making some fries for later from my garden production. There are some really big red potatoes coming out of my garden. One of the things I’ve confirmed for myself in the last couple of weeks is that I prefer yellow potatoes by taste although the reds are firmer and therefore a bit easier to peel.
I’m peeling them because they smell strongly of dirt even after I wash them, and it’s not a good smell of dirt, it’s a wrinkle your nose and go eeew what’s wrong with my soil kinda smell. I don’t remember them smelling like this the last time I grew potatoes.

Opened a can of pink salmon last week and I swear the pink salmon is getting paler and paler all the time. My housemate thought it was tuna.

Maybe this is actually a good thing. Maybe this means there are new regulations about what you can feed to farmed salmon?
I would prefer to buy wild salmon as you know if you’ve read previous posts but this can was in the cupboard.
The food I threw out last week was the left over from a cauliflower and egg salad I made the week before. I guess I just didn’t get the herb/marinade/dressing mix quite right this time because despite enjoying previous such salads this one wasn’t particularly appetizing and despite making a couple of heroic efforts to eat it anyway, it kept getting pushed to the back of the fridge and I eventually decided I was going to have to let it go. It’s a bit of a shame because there was still quite a lot of it, but it’d been around for awhile.

I did rescue some broccoli that was starting to look a bit funk by boiling the heck out of it and dousing it in sauce as part of a pasta bowl. Fortunately it seems to have gone down okay.

When I was at the farm stand yesterday, I noticed they’ve started to sell their canning tomatoes. So pretty soon, I’m going to be thinking about going on a pasta-sauce making adventure again.

Ah, the power has come back, so I can copy-paste this into the thread now that my router is up.
And I can open my fridge door and see what I should do with yesterday’s purchases, too!

11 days since I last threw out food waste.

The watermelon is excellent and unexpectedly yellow instead of red. It will all be gone soon, 95% of it into my belly.

Not much else to say. Going to take it easy food/meal planning wise this last week of August and just try using up some of what we've already got.
First week of September is my birthday week, who knows what might happen then!

19 days since I last threw out food.

Have received several mystery packages in birthday wrapping I believe will prove to be food.

This past week I've mostly worked from my freezer. There is still an enormous amount of food there. The last half of August I was able to regain a bit of grocery-budget sanity. And I was able to do a pretty inexpensive shop yesterday at the grocery stores even though I went into the city, but I don't know what to do about the birthday food. I'm not buying it, but it is being bought for me. I don't know. Is this a present and therefore should not be included in my monthly grocery budget, or is it still food, and I should guesstimate what it costs? I am told that my birthday will involve grass-finished steak. It sounds good. It also sounds like it'll murder my budget! There is also a nearly 100% chance of birthday cake.

I've been harvesting handfuls of green beans every day from my garden, even though my dog continues to eat them off the vines. I am also still harvesting fresh potato, and incorporated some thinning carrot tops into stir fries earlier this week. I've been drinking some more fruit smoothies. My time-restricted eating has been a bit off because for various reasons I've been eating later then usual the past couple of days, but I do intend to return to the pattern as soon as it's vaguely practical - which should be as soon as the weekend is over.

I also would really like to get a couple of recipe tests in this coming month. Originally, when I first conceived of my cookbook project, I had the vague hope it would be completed and published tomorrow. That hope was too vague.
Perhaps by this time next year?

It has been five days since I last threw out food.

I decided to toss a nearly full jar of red sauerkraut. I'd purchased it for a test recipe some time back and while I initially enjoyed it, later it started to taste less and less appetizing and although I tried a couple of different ways to eat it, I had got to the point where I was dreading it - and I know my housemate would never eat any of it. So I threw it out. Also a few other bits and bobs at the same time although I can't remember the details on them now.
And my housemate apparently threw out the potatoes and carrots I left on my plate during my birthday party. I don't know why. I would have happily eaten them the next day. In fact, I was planning on eating them the next day.
Never trust anyone else to honour your left overs!

I still have a slice of birthday cake in my fridge - don't tell but it's not my favourite birthday cake ever - too much whipped cream but I understand the options in town are limited if you're not a baker since the place that used to make custom cakes no longer does. And it was a birthday cake and it came with candles and what am I do complaining about getting a birthday cake?!

Had another small grocery shop yesterday - I didn't want to take the time to go to a fruit stand yesterday as I was late to get started on the day and also I thought there would be some produce at the "regular" store - however, it was super busy in the store and most of the produce left on the shelves looked like it would be better composted than consumed by people. I did find a bag of "imperfect" bell peppers that I'll chop up and freeze - but otherwise I am entirely fresh-vegetable-less - aside from what I get from the garden and freezer.

This will focus my mind on using some of the sorrel and amaranth  as well as more green beans and potatoes from my back yard.

Perhaps I'll be able to clear enough space in my freezer by the end of this next week that I'll feel confident in making a large tomato purchase and start preparing homemade pasta again, like last year? If I empty out enough canning jars which are currently being used to hold frozen stuff and stuff in the cupboards, I might even can some tomato sauce, instead of putting it in the freezer...

But I have to start by tidying up the fridge a bit as the birthday week has left it a bit of a mess.

Happy Birthday, Vera!! 🎂🍨🎁🎉🥳

Thanks Carla!

Technically, it has been fifteen days since I last threw out food, but to be honest there is a jar of chicken broth in my fridge that I should probably throw out I just don't want to because I worked to make it and I'm ashamed I let it get hidden behind other jars until I rediscovered it a few days ago and part of me wants to try eating it but I won't because who wants food poisoning?

That was a very long sentence, I'm sorry.

I haven't had a lot of success in getting through the pile-up in my freezers. I have been adding to the freezer, making more fries from my garden potatoes. I think I have to make one more batch before I've got most of them out of the ground. I hope they're good later on. I don't know that I will get to making tomato sauce now. I've gotten a bit side-tracked on several other projects as we go into fall.

A few days ago I heard that my neighbours were having an apple-sauce-making party and I felt left out. I also am wondering where they got cheap apples. They probably have a connection with an orchard person. I suppose I could ask. I was sort of hoping they'd send over something - I could trade them some potatoes. But, I know their extended family is under financial strain and I'm not mad, they probably didn't have much to spare.

I made a recipe for a friend who is also into testing old recipes, it was basically ham and eggs, but it was tasty and we had it for supper one night. Now I have some left over back bacon, which I'm enjoying as it's been a very long time since I've had back bacon. I'm also still using bacon fat that I rendered off of stripey bacon, but I'll probably use it all up pretty soon.

This week I'm continuing time-restricted eating and trying to avoid using margarine. I've used margarine all my life, and I'll probably continue to use it for as long as I remain in my current living situation because it will be around, but I'm aware there are... issues... with it. There are also issues with butter, such as. I am struggling with how the heck you're supposed to spread your butter on your bread. I've been avoiding that problem by putting hummus on my sandwiches so far, which requires no butter/margarine/olive oil in addition.

One of the problems that has developed with my time-restricted eating schedule is that I am now often not eating breakfast until nine in the morning, and my housemate is often eating breakfast then, whereas before, I would be done my breakfast an hour, an hour and a half before and get to have it alone. Now they sort of expect me to hang around and chat with them at breakfast, and I feel like I spend enough time chatting with them already, I just want to eat breakfast for five minutes and get on with my morning. Right now my eating-window is from 8:30-ish in the morning to 6:30 or sometimes 7PM in the evening (depending on when I make supper.) This is not a strain at all except for the sharing breakfast time. This morning I wasn't even hungry at nine.

I did break the eating schedule once last week when I had some brand-name popcorn with a movie (it was a vintage brand I was trying out for my cookbook.) It was fun to pop over the stove and tasted pretty good (mmm weird chemical preservatives, yummy) and now I'm thinking maybe I should get some "raw" popcorn kernels to have in reserve in case movie-snacky time strikes again.
Or maybe it could just be instead of potato chips.
Which I've actually been quite good at avoiding recently.
It's the boxed cookies and the pastries the housemate keeps buying that are real downfalls.
Yeah, let's keep blaming the housemate.

I am about 65 pounds overweight. I would like to change that a bit. I feel like that should be step two in my fight against food waste. I'm wasting food all the time when I'm refilling that extra flab. And there are some health concerns too, obviously.

I haven't been very good about establishing that walking routine I wanted to establish. I wonder how I can blame the housemate for that?

It has been only ONE day since I last threw out food.

When I went after that jar of chicken broth I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to also toss a bunch of food that I've been keeping with little hope of actually using. For example, I confirmed with my housemate what I have suspected for some time - that they actively dislike rhubarb, and the dozen or so of jars/containers frozen were really just taking up space, since while I don't mind rhubarb, it's not sufficiently yummy to me for me to make the extra effort to have it in solo dishes. (We kept two jars because over a whole winter, I can probably manage to use up two jars as cereal or yogourt topping.)
Have you ever dumped a dozen jars of half-thawed rhubarb down your toilet? It is sometimes exciting.

I also chucked some dried herbs that I had in excess, and some dog treats I'd bought last week but which my dog was not eating "properly" and thus were dangerous. (They were supposed to be gnawed away at. Over long periods. She gulped a couple of them down in minutes, without, you know, chewing, and choked a bit on one piece. Idiot dog-child.)

Yesterday I finally got the old casserole out of the freezer and warmed it up. It's... okay.  I completely forget what it was but it seems to be mostly rice, some cream and cheese, small bits of chicken and some faint traces of some kind of green vegetable. It must have been a left-overs casserole. I've put about a third of it back into the freezer (because it was massive) and after serving a sizable amount of it at supper last night, I will be eating remaining unfrozen portions over the next few days at lunch.

This morning I parboiled and froze more potatoes from the garden.

Unfortunately/fortunately I have reached the end of one row of potatoes, and there is still another row.

Tomorrow there's a food bank drive in my community and I'm happy I've been able to pull a couple of cans out of my cupboard to contribute.

Oh, and I made a fresh salsa this afternoon and it was good!

I am currently waiting for a quiche to actually cook (it's been twice as long as the recipe said, I've turned up the heat, and it's still jiggly in the middle, argh! I am getting hungry!)

I am also slow cooking about a pound of crab apples one of my other neighbours brought over yesterday, I'm hoping it will turn into apple butter. I like the idea of apple butter. The smell reminds me very much of the year we made crab apple jelly from a tree in my old yard --- and then never ate much of it, because it turns out we didn't like it.

It has been seven days since I last threw out food.

The freezer space I freed up has been reoccupied - by a turkey. I forgot it was almost Canadian Thanksgiving until it appeared!

Someone around here needs to make bread, I've cut the last of a loaf for supper tonight. Whenever we actually get it. Come on, quiche!

It has been 17? days since I last threw out food.

We've had our Thanksgiving. I was unable to use the turkey carcass for making stock, because I have no room. I'm short on room in two ways - I both don't have room in freezers, as I'm trying to empty the basement freezer to defrost it and the fridge freezer is stuffed to the gills, and I also, more importantly, don't have any spare jars or other reusable "official" containers at the moment. I'm having to use ye plate on top on top of dishes in the fridge, which is a bit prone to spills.
I feel a bit bad about the lack of turkey stock but on the other hand I do still have a couple of jars of chicken stock and soup. And also cans of soup. Actually I have a lot of soup.

The crab apple butter worked out really nicely. Now I just have to remember to use it!

In my quest to use up both left over turkey, eggs, and to empty a freezer, I've made another quiche, using up a package of frozen dough. I also dumped the left overs of a "taco" seasoning package into it, and used the last of the bacon fat I'd saved up to fry some frozen onion, bell pepper and mushrooms. (I still have lots of those.)

I really need to review my cookbook project and see what else I need to test by way of recipes for it, but I've been busy with other writing projects along with fall house chores and I've been letting it slide. I recently had the thought that perhaps I've been more ambitious with the project than I need to be and I could maybe get away with 52 recipes instead of 100, in which case, I'm much closer to being complete with the cooking aspects of the project. With grocery prices still going up it's getting more difficult all the time to test recipes.

Lately in the mornings I've been making myself a hot drink in a thermos to work down all morning - I have several options, a couple of kinds of tea (some quite elderly and not all that appealing, I don't much care for black tea but it's so standard I also feel like we should always have some in case of guests) some hot chocolate, some barley drink, some instant decaf. Sometimes I mix them up, put some coffee in with the hot chocolate, for example. I've eaten so much over the weekend, though, that today I'm back to just drinking water!

I'm hoping to only shop for fresh ingredients this week, and work further on the stockpile of food in the house. I fear I'm going to have to harvest the last of the potatoes from the garden soon, as the still above-freezing weather surely can't last much longer. Sadly it seems like the remaining row of potatoes in my garden are reds - and they're a bit chewed on-looking when I pull them up. Another reminder to myself that next year I'm planting 1) fewer potatoes over all and 2) not red ones. Maybe I'll try growing russets again. It would be nice if you could buy mixed bags of seedling potatoes.

Need to plant out daffodils for the spring.

P.S. - remembering it took so long to cook the last quiche, I pre-cooked the latest quiche part way in the morning when I was working on sorting through turkey bits in the kitchen, and then popped it back in for a second and final cook closer to supper time. It worked!

It has been thirty two days since I last threw out food --- sort of.

I spent three nights and four days travelling and there were some restaurant orders that I did not finish. Does it count against me that the plates were so heaped up? The first place (a Cora's breakfast place, they're a chain) did offer to put my left over pancakes in a carryout container for me, but since I was going to spend several hours wandering around on foot before returning to the hotel, I declined.

The second place, I tried to order a small sweet and sour soup for lunch and somehow,  I think largely due to language difficulties, I ended up with a GIANT bowl of chicken noodle soup that was delicious, but could have fed an entire family. If I'd had some way of bringing it home I would have, but there was no options outside of my carrying an open giant bowl of soup through the streets, somehow juggling it alongside my shopping bags and directions back to the hotel in a neighbourhood I was not terribly familiar with.

Besides these two problems, I've been doing really well!

Part of my shopping spree saw me buying a popcorn maker which uses hot air instead of oil to make the popcorn. I really wanted to find an old-fashioned popcorn maker to shake over the stove, but the new-fangled standalone electric popper was on sale and tax free and my sales resistance was low by that point in the day and I bought it. I hope to test it either tonight or some time tomorrow, perhaps as an afternoon snack-maker.

I'm still working on trying to empyty my basement freezer so that I can defrost it.
Today, we had the first snow of the season fall from the sky, and I rushed outside to harvest the last tiny bit of lettuce, plus some sorrel (and daisies for the table.)
Yesterday, I harvested the rest of the garden carrots. I was happy with my sink-full of green and orange. I've saved some of the green tops for later and used some yesterday. I'm keeping some carrots fresh in the fridge, have chopped and frozen some, and I'm experimenting with pickling some! I've used a jar that I believe is about seventy years old so I'm fridge-pickling them instead of really super-pickling them.

I also plan to pickle some cucumber soon as their was a super-sale on local cucumbers recently. I'm still recovering from my fast-and-busy trip and am running around a bit like the proverbial headless chicken this week. I'll be heating up some left over noodles and already-cooked-potatoes with something else for supper in a few minutes!

It has been we'll call it forty days since I last threw out food.

If I don't count the money I spent on restaurant meals while travelling, October saw my grocery bill finally return to last year's weekly average.

I've signed up to do some more test cooking for my friend, and today that meant whipping together a tahini dressing. I've never bought tahini before, and was beginning to worry there was none available in my town, until I found a jar of "tahini butter" on the bottom shelf in the "natural foods" ghetto of the store. I am not 100% sure this is what the recipe was calling for, but it's what I used, adding lemon juice, garlic and some other stuff to it. It does not look appetizing, but it tastes pretty good. Because it's got garlic in it (even though I only used half the amount the recipe calls for) I know this will be a me-food-only and I'll have to figure out how to use it up without the help of the housemate.

I tested it on some of my pickled carrots today. Not sure that was the correct taste combination.

Both my carrot-pickles and my cucumber-pickles came out okay. I think they might need to sit longer for a better flavour.

Also today I made a small amount of chicken broth from some chicken bones. It's been a minorly kitcheny day as it's raining and gloomy and I'm procrastinating on starting a flash fiction story that I would ideally have ready by tomorrow morning.

I can report that the popcorn maker works, I've used it twice so far. Maybe tahini dressings can be used on top of a small bowl of popcorn?

I'm very impressed by your dedication and sharing with us Vera, thank you!
The tahini I have in my store is just roast ground sesame seed, so if yours had other ingredients you may need to take those into account when formulating your recipe, otherwise I suspect it's just terminology. You can get a dark tahini, which I suppose is just roasted more....
Do you need more recipes for tahini, or the dressing? It may go well as a pasta salad dressing - hot or cold, with a bit of chicken or chickpeas and veg. I'm not sure about pop corn let us know! For tahini, the only thing I can think of is hummous, so it may be worth starting a new thread for that! You can use it in cakes, our local baker does a wicked tahini blondie ;

It has been forty-nine days since I last threw food away. And today, I managed to go for the weekly grocery shopping, and emerge from the shops having spent less than $100!

But I seem to have missed a week in my budget tracker. And I can't slide open the top drawer in my fridge-freezer without things falling out.

I have not yet tried the tahini on popcorn, but I will start a tahini thread in a moment!

Yesterday I made a pasta-cheese dish with some cheese that's been sitting in my freezer for a couple of months, I think? I made six serving's worth and stashed two servings back in the freezer.  Also last week, I bought some full on puffy crust frozen pizza, because I was feeling bad. (Usually if I get frozen pizza I get the thin crust type.)

I have discovered, that after not eating that kind of big crust frozen pizza for several years, I no longer care for it very much at all, and I don't think I'll get any more (at least not for another decade before I forget I don't actually like it!) I feel like I have matured my tastebuds slightly, and positively!

I have been trying to get back on to my time-restricted eating schedule after being thrown off by travelling and the time-keeping change.

I'm a bit worried I may have too much food in my fridge again - for example I bought cottage cheese last week thinking it would be a nice change-of-snack, but I haven't even opened the container yet. I don't know how much longer I can go before having to throw something out again.

I've unfortunately been gaining some weight again recently and I'm feeling... not great. I'm thinking of starting a project/thread/substack/journal or something called "Vera is Losing It!" where I can chatter more about trying to get body and mind in better shape. I've had the thought the world needs a "Healthy Living Tips for Writers and Other People Who Sit On Their Butts All Day and Don't Exercise because They Are Nerdy Writers" type of book or website or podcast or... something. I've had this thought lurking in the back of my mind for awhile.

But I also have a gazillion other ideas and things to do. Which is why I think a less-pressure/less-structured place would be better for awhile anyway. Something that could maybe grow into a book some day. I just need to find the energy to start it and get it rolling.

Vera Stewart wrote: I'm thinking of starting a project/thread/substack/journal or something called "Vera is Losing It!" where I can chatter more about trying to get body and mind in better shape. I've had the thought the world needs a "Healthy Living Tips for Writers and Other People Who Sit On Their Butts All Day and Don't Exercise because They Are Nerdy Writers" type of book or website or podcast or... something. I've had this thought lurking in the back of my mind for awhile.

I bet it would be appreciated: you definitely aren't the only one. I help run a yearly peer conference on mental/physical/spiritual/financial health for local translators and editors and it always sells out: when you work for yourself, by yourself, it can be easy to put these things on the back (or the way back) burner.

Tereza Okava wrote:

Vera Stewart wrote: I'm thinking of starting a project/thread/substack/journal or something called "Vera is Losing It!" where I can chatter more about trying to get body and mind in better shape. I've had the thought the world needs a "Healthy Living Tips for Writers and Other People Who Sit On Their Butts All Day and Don't Exercise because They Are Nerdy Writers" type of book or website or podcast or... something. I've had this thought lurking in the back of my mind for awhile.

I bet it would be appreciated: you definitely aren't the only one. I help run a yearly peer conference on mental/physical/spiritual/financial health for local translators and editors and it always sells out: when you work for yourself, by yourself, it can be easy to put these things on the back (or the way back) burner.

This is still on my mind.

It has been four days since I last threw out food.

The day after I posted last, I discovered my lovely batch of crabapple butter went moldy. And then four days ago I threw something else out, but I don't remember what it was anymore. I know I finished the cottage cheese!

I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting, food wise, just working my way through my freezer. I have a recipe I really must test for a friend tomorrow, because some of the ingredients are going to start getting funky. I planned to do that test today, but then people came and visited. People are annoying sometimes. These ones left part of a cake, and two bottles of booze, despite the fact that we drink booze extremely slowly in this house. I can probably bake or cook with some of it, as long as I remember to do it.  The cake will not be a problem.

It has been [b]twelve days since I last threw out food... with one exception I won't count... I threw out the rest of my tahini dressing, because I'm pretty sure it made me sick one day. Throwing out food that probably makes you sick does not count as food waste to me.

It was the only relatively new-to-me food item I ate before having a bout of stomach upset. I don't know why it would be fine for several uses and then suddenly not-fine, but I haven't had any re-occurrences since throwing it out, so it remains my most likely suspect. It might just be I left it standing out on the counter a few too many times a bit too long.

I got a pedometer for myself with hopes of tracking 6000 steps a day - I thought that was fairly doable but since I've got it I have only had a couple of days when I've managed that low number! I'm trying not to beat myself up over it too much and just try and get out and walk when I can - the weather hasn't been the greatest and that's been serving as a bit of an excuse - that and all the other things I need to do and tend to prioritize before taking care of myself.
On my last successful walk, I ended up carrying more stress at the end than at the beginning as I became borderline enraged at all the fencing that's been put up since I moved here, tangling up my previously bucolic view!

Tomorrow I'm expecting to go to a potluck so I'll be making some sweet-potato salad and what I call "man-crust" eggs to take with me. I haven't decided yet if I'll also make some oatmeal molasses cookies, I might run out of time to prepare.
There is a shortage of sugar in the stores as the result of a union strike at a major sugar refinery here in BC - it's been going on for a couple of months, but now with the Christmas demand surge, it has become quite noticeable. I won't mind not being able to do quite so much baking this year and we have enough sugar in the house at the moment to keep making bread for another couple of weeks, anyway.

Hi Vera,

looks like you are making progress in your journey!
Regarding your other project, the weight-loss, have you tried making a change in your diet? I hope this does not come across as rude (English is not my native language), but it sounds like you often include quick/empty carbs (pastry, bread including sugar etc.).
My husband shed 15 kg (not sure what's that in US pounds) by reducing overall carbs and only eating slow carbs (wholemeal, grains, pulses) if any, no sugar at all. I had urged him to change his eating habits for many years with no avail; the wakeup call came when an overweight coworker fell severely ill.
My husband did not go to extremes like keto or carnivore but it was quite a change to his previous indulgence in sweets, empty carbs, snacks. Well, he added also intermittent fasting and workout (too extreme, in my eyes, it took him only 6 months or so) but he had success and is almost as slim as when we met!

You already have great veggie additions from your garden, so look how you can mealplan around those. What type of recipes are you planning for your cookbook? Maybe you can shift the focus a little to include more whole foods?

It has been nineteen days since I last threw out food.
I have some remnant celery freezing at the moment and then I can cut up some cauliflower and the last squash from the garden (it looks like it'll keep on the shelf for ages yet but it keeps getting in the way there, so I'm going to stick in in the freezer where there's a bit more space a the moment)
I think I'm ready for Christmas, ingredients wise. I found some sugar in the city yesterday. This weekend I absolutely must focus on getting my holiday cards/letters out but after that I might do some baking.
Got some more walking in. I haven't lost any weight in the last week but I haven't gained anymore either.

Which leads me to questions about my diet (no, I don't think you're rude) I know that it's not great. There are a number of changes I'd like to make. However, I live in a situation where I have to share my kitchen and meal times, and I only have so much energy - I often can't find enough to create separate meals, and my attempts to alter the house's diet mostly fail. It's very discouraging. I have willpower at the shops and resist buying empty calories, only to have them arrive on the counter anyway, and once they're in the house, I have a much harder time saying no, I'll go for the healthier option.

When I was previously much lighter/healthier, I was walking for almost two hours a day - not to "get exercise" but to get from point a to point b. I also wasn't eating as many treats because there weren't as many around.

I'm hoping that if I can marry walks with voice-recording poetry or other fiction works and treat it as writing inspiration time and therefore have another "reason" to walk (because for me, "just" "getting exercise" is something I can't seem to get behind) maybe it will be easier to re-introduce walking into my routine. I do have a dog and sometimes walking her is my excuse to go outside, but unfortunately sometimes someone else takes her and then I don't have a "reason" for the day.
I meant to take my voice recorder with me the other day but forgot, I'll put it in my jacket pocket right now so I'll have it next time.

Vera, I didn't mean to put you in a position where you have to explain or defend yourself, but thanks anyway for taking the time to give some background to your situation! I wish you strength and opportunity for changes, maybe you can start with tiny tiny steps that are manageable with the level of energy and wiggle room you have right now?
Good luck!

It has been twenty-five days since I last threw out food.

I did some baking yesterday - including using some of the left-over tahini I had in a jar as a substitute in "peanut butter" cookies. I have not noticed any adverse reactions to the tahini in a cookie format, but I also have been careful to only eat a few so far, and they are small. This afternoon I need to do another post-grocery-shop sorting of the fresh ingredients, but I continue to think I'm super-ready for this coming week of festivities. It's raining right now, so we're going to have soup for lunch.
I hope it'll snow, I like snow for it's brightening effect at this time of year.

There are only a few remaining tasks for me this year - one of them is to sort out my cookbook information. I don't know if I'll get to that before xmas off-line time or if it'll have to wait for next week. (I'm disconnecting on the 24th for atleast three days and hopefully four.)

I'm really looking forward to a stay-cation of doing next to nothing! Happy first-longer-day to everyone else in the northern hemisphere!

Hi everyone.

This isn't meant to be a downer post - but I am stepping back from updating this thread in the new year. There's nothing wrong - actually, it's a case of the opposite, I have several neat opportunities coming up in my writing life over the next little while, and in my review of what I should and shouldn't be focusing my energy on, in order to get the most important things done, it's simply the case that I'll have to let this thread go for now.

I am still thinking about working on a project promoting healthier living for writers -  but I think what is more important at the moment is if I start trying to seriously implement some healthy changes rather than spend time writing about them ;)

I am still trying to work on a cookbook, and I will still be trying to limit the amount of food I waste.

I'm not stopping anything except updates to this thread! Thank you for your readership, comments, advise and support. I hope to still hover around these forums now and then, and best wishes to all of you in 2024!